MotoGP 23

I want to be straight with you about who this game is and is not for, because the Steam reviews sit at Mixed for a reason. MotoGP 23 is Milestone's most technically uncompromising motorcycle sim to date, and that cuts both ways. If you are coming from kart racers, arcade titles, or even semi-sim car games expecting to hop on a Ducati GP23 and immediately feel cool, you are going to spend your first few hours getting intimate with the gravel traps. The throttle physics in particular are genuinely new territory for the series: apply mid-corner power and the bike wants to stand itself back up, forcing you to hang on and manage the lean angle simultaneously. It is demanding in a way that even MotoGP veterans will notice immediately. The headline addition this year is dynamic weather, and it earns its billing. Races can flip from dry to soaking mid-event, puddles pool off the racing line, and the handling gap between slick tarmac and a waterlogged circuit is dramatic. The flag-to-flag rule ties into this beautifully: if rain rolls in, you have to pit and swap to a wet-setup bike, which turns a routine race into a strategic scramble. On paper, that sounds great for couch sessions, and it kind of is, right up until the AI ignores the weather entirely and sticks to corners like the water is not there. That AI inconsistency is a genuine frustration, reported widely by players, and it can make the opening career races feel wildly unfair before you have even settled into the handling model. Career mode is where MotoGP 23 finds its best form. You start in the tail end of a Moto3 season, and your finishing positions, combined with a social-media rivals system called the MotoGP Wall, determine whether you get fast-tracked to Moto2 or the premier class. Rivals who you antagonise online will race you more aggressively on track. Teammates whose records you beat will open up lead-rider contract slots. There are also Turning Points, which are milestone objectives that can redirect your career arc entirely. It is the best career structure Milestone has put into one of these games, though fans of last year's Nine Season 2009 documentary mode will find nothing to replace it here, which stings. Sprint Races are also in for the MotoGP class, which adds a shorter format to the competitive slate. For multiplayer, the PC version supports split-screen for two players and online races with up to twelve, though cross-play with console is absent on PC, which is a miss. There is also a LiveGP mode, structured like Gran Turismo 7's daily races, where you drop into scheduled online events and climb through thirteen ranked tiers. That is a genuinely fresh idea for a motorcycle game and gives online play a reason to keep coming back beyond open lobbies. The MotoGP Academy training mode is worth a mention for newcomers: it breaks down circuit-specific braking points and corner entry angles, and it is the most useful on-ramp the series has offered. The Neural Aids system, which uses AI to intervene on braking, steering, and throttle inputs, fills the gap between the Academy and real racing, though at its most aggressive setting it strips out so much feedback that you learn nothing from it. Turn it down incrementally as you improve rather than switching it off cold. Controller players will find this manageable with some setup time. Wheel and pedal rigs are not really the target hardware here, given this is a two-wheeler sim rather than a four-wheeled one, and a gamepad with analogue triggers gives you enough resolution on the throttle to feel meaningful progression. The visuals on the bikes and riders are strong, but track environments are starting to show their age off the racing line. Optimization at launch was criticised by players, though patches have improved stability since. If you are a committed MotoGP fan who watches the real championship, this is genuinely the deepest single-player version of that experience available. If you are buying this to see whether you like bike sims in general, the learning curve may work against you before the good stuff reveals itself.

Riley · Scout Team

Sports & racing

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